"Trapped rainbow" could herald new dawn for computing

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — Scientists in Britain said Wednesday they were able to slow and then stop a squirt of light in what they described as a key step towards the future of ultra-fast computing.

The technique, called "trapped rainbow," would help optical data storage, with light replacing electrons to store information, according to their paper, released by the British science journal Nature.

Controlling light would also help engineers control major nodes where billions of optical data "packets" arrive at the same time.

By slowing some packets to let others through, rather like a traffic congestion scheme, the flow of data can be boosted.

The research, by Ortwin Hess, a professor at the University of Surrey at Guildford, southern England and postgraduate...